Well maybe Williams should start replacing Maldonado rather than Senna every week as obviously Maldonado doesn't need the track time as much atm.

The problem for Senna at Barcelona was allot to do with missing the first practice session. This track required the car to have a good setup suited to each driver to enable the best possible results, especially getting the car to work for each driver regarding how the tyres behaved and worn at this track.

Senna missing this practice session surely had a massive effect on his weekend as you could see how much he was struggling with the balance of the car, especially massive amounts of understeer, even the top teams struggled to get the balance right and drivers suffered as a result during the race.

Missing this practice session is just not benefiting Williams at all unless Bottas was giving the race seat to drive in all the sessions. As it is them putting Bottas in place of their full seat driver for the first session is costing them potentially even better results from Senna.

With Pastor now getting the win it's vital Williams get as many posts as possible to help them in the constructers table, they have to fully support Senna and let him race in the first practice session or drop him and put Bottas in as the situation is not helping them or Senna at all (And at a track like Monaco more track time is vital, again like at Barcelona)

Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas took the win at the annual Steelpig contest, held in Vantaa, Finland. The lighthearted contest includes 300m swim, 10km cycling, 3,5km hike and finally a one litre pint of beer at the finish line.

Second time participant Bottas was confident heading into the contest. "I'm always going for the win, no matter what kind of sport it is." Bottas said.

The boasting paid off as Bottas took the victory with quite a margin.

So will he be called Steelpig from now on? What a top guy.

_________________“Suddenly the steering wheel was in my hands. I tried to put it back on, but it was too late. I was just wondering where I was going to end up.”

Would make sense since Bottas has stated that he'll go to another team if he can't get a race drive at Williams next year. They'll probably give boot to Bruno because, despite being much more consistent, he hasn't shown the same kind of speed as the Maldonado and has smaller sponsorship package to back him. Maldonado can at least try to iron out his lack of prudence on race track.

I listened to the Flying Lap podcast after the Abudhabi GP, where Steve Robertson ( Correct me if I'm wrong here) said that he has the same kind of feel for the car & it's relation to the road that he's only ever seen before in Kimi Räikkönen. I really hope he get's a seat for 2013 in Williams, and his pace on fridays has been surprisingly good considering how little time he gets in the car.

Personally I think people might destroy his career before it even started. I think Bottas is being promoted as the new wonderkid and that's very dangerous is he doesn't live up to those incredible expectations.

Valtteri Bottas’s promotion from test driver to race driver comes as little surprise, with his 2013 seat almost confirmed from the moment it was announced that he would take part in fifteen 2012 practice sessions. It also came as little surprise that it was Bruno Senna who was the man to make way for Bottas, with Maldonado’s superior outright speed and PDVSA sponsorship securing him a third successive season with the Grove based team.

Bottas is already integrated within the Williams team. He joined as their test driver at the start of 2010 and has even helped the team set-up and pack up from a race weekend. Although Bottas will undoubtedly suffer the pitfalls of a rookie season, he is perhaps one of the highest rated youngsters to join the sport in recent years.

Sir Frank Williams, who has worked with the likes of Nigel Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve and Jenson Button said that “Valtteri is quite simply one of the most talented young racing drivers I have come across”. High praise indeed for the 2011 GP3 champion.

Thrilled that he's got the drive. Can't wait to see him in action next season (I think he'll be brilliant).

Not that anyone could ever replace him but when Kimi retires I'm pretty much certain to start supporting Bottas full-time (my mum is Finnish), unless he proves himself to be a dick over the coming seasons (which I can't see happening at this stage - he seems very grounded).

As an aside, I asked my mum and she confirmed that 'Valtteri Bottas' is not a Finnish name. Any ideas?

As an aside, I asked my mum and she confirmed that 'Valtteri Bottas' is not a Finnish name. Any ideas?

Valtteri definitely is, I'm not sure about Bottas, haven't heard it before so at least it's uncommon.

There are currently 32 people who are called Bottas in Finland. Valtteri is much more common with 29374. Bottas sounds like a name of a farm, which may have evolved into a surname - that's just my theory behind it though.

I think Bottas could have some Swedish heritage (the name not Valtteri)

The only thing I'm worried about is Williams seeming to be a very uptight place, compared to say Lotus. Then again a disciplined team is a good place to start for a rookie. Definately going to be rooting for Bottas & Kimi next year! Imagine a win in his rookie year (As if he didn't have enough expectations already ) I'd go ballistic

I think Bottas could have some Swedish heritage (the name not Valtteri)

Bottas does indeed sound Swedish, and even though Nastola is unilingually Finnish nowadays Finland has been under Swedish rule and Nastola is in the south. Mind you, that's why I think it may be an old farm name - Bottas could be the name of any modern-day farm in the Swedish-speaking areas of Finland, and the name is probably moderately old.

As for Williams, it may be a bit disciplined, but they do have Maldonado. It seems like a good team to start out in, especially if they can improve further on this year's car, which was clearly fast, although not consistently so.

They have to expect hugh things from him they claim its not financial suicide but haven't seen or heard or bottas gaining new sponsors since mid season, even with Concorde money and sennas backing they only made £6m profit last year! They need a big jump in the constructors championship to make up for what they haven't got next year. They will be hoping Maldonado. Brings it home more and that bottas can be regularly in the points i think realistically they have aimed for 5th/6th and cant really drop below that.

They have to expect hugh things from him they claim its not financial suicide but haven't seen or heard or bottas gaining new sponsors since mid season, even with Concorde money and sennas backing they only made £6m profit last year! They need a big jump in the constructors championship to make up for what they haven't got next year. They will be hoping Maldonado. Brings it home more and that bottas can be regularly in the points i think realistically they have aimed for 5th/6th and cant really drop below that.

I think Nastola is near Lahti, one of my army buddies was from there. So yea farm area

Pretty brave of Toto Wolff to say they already expect from him, whereas Perez joining Mclaren made his own voice heard by saying he wants the WDC.

Can't wait until march. And now with Kovi (rumoured to be) in talks with Lotus

I live near Nastola and not far from Villähde where Bottas is from. Nastola isnt exactly farm area so much, more industrial but anyway the name Bottas is indeed farm name from Sweden and in Finland you can find those names from southern coast. My daughter talked about Bottas as he was speaking in their school.She didnt even know he is F1 driver..

Valtteri Bottas F1-contract was announced in the end of November. Commercial Counsellor Antti Aarnio-Wihuri and Sir Frank Williams had however talked through the schemes already last summer.

– Frank and I met in August and basically agreed upon that this is what we aim for. In the end everything went just like we had planned. I had known for a longer time that Valtteri gets the seat as a racing driver. But we agreed that we will not talk about this and that's exactly how we acted, Aarnio-Wihuri said to Urheilutieto.

Aarnio-Wihuri has known Frank Williams for 30 years already. They met during Aarnio-Wihuri's own racing career.

As a young man he raced both in track-racing and rally and he also owned his own racing team in motorsport in the 70's. It's quite a circle in Finnish motorsport that closes due to Bottas' F1-seat.

The times are completely different now, but the personal connections that Antti Aarnio-Wihuri made decades ago are still valid.

Motorsport is still close to his heart. His company Wihuri Oy has supported Bottas' rise to F1 for many years already.

– We made the plan about going for Valtteri's F1-seat ten years ago already, so of course it's a positive thing that it finally succeeded. It's never granted that these things pull off.

– What made his seat possible was that Valtteri knows how to race, but also the fact that we have invested a lot of money in him. In addition to that I have a personal relationship with Frank Williams. That was also significant, Aarnio-Wihuri says.

– Our big ads appear on Williams-team's car next year so that they are visible in television. On top of that we have different by-products that are related to the races and also bring visibility. We have factories in Europe and USA. We invest though F1-sponsoring to get visibility in the countries where we have operation, Aarnio-Wihuri said.

The company also put cold money in the game so that Bottas got the racing seat.

– We are talking about substantial amounts but not about tens of millions like some other drivers are said to bring in. We hope that we get back the money we invested through advertising.

– Other Finnish companies should start to sponsor young driver-talents but they should choose the target they sponsor very carefully. Everyone's driving talents and especially mental characteristics are not enough for a F1-seat. This project succeeded brilliantly because we proceeded with a long-term plan.

I've never heard of any of those companies before. However I am very grateful that Bottas got the seat. Watched an interview from YLE when Kimi was 21 and he stated that the Robertsons were key in him getting a seat. Looking forward to more of Kulta's articles next season!

Wipak for example is Wihuris trademarks..and many others. Kemppi is welding company from Lahti(but international company anyway) and Laulumaa is furniture company from Lahti. Wihuri is the most biggest company of those by far.

Yea but considering I live in Finland and I've never heard of them... but anyways few companies in Finland have the kind of money lying around to sponsor an F1 driver, so they must be good at what they do! What a timely investment too considering F1 interest in Finland is probably on the rise with Kimi's comeback proving to be a success and Bottas hailed to bring in viewers for the next decade!

Can somebody confirm (I forgot where I read it, mtv3 probably) that Häkkinen has had a hand in Bottas' career too?

I think Bottas could have some Swedish heritage (the name not Valtteri)

Bottas does indeed sound Swedish, and even though Nastola is unilingually Finnish nowadays Finland has been under Swedish rule and Nastola is in the south. Mind you, that's why I think it may be an old farm name - Bottas could be the name of any modern-day farm in the Swedish-speaking areas of Finland, and the name is probably moderately old.

As an aside, I asked my mum and she confirmed that 'Valtteri Bottas' is not a Finnish name. Any ideas?

Valtteri definitely is, I'm not sure about Bottas, haven't heard it before so at least it's uncommon.

There are currently 32 people who are called Bottas in Finland. Valtteri is much more common with 29374. Bottas sounds like a name of a farm, which may have evolved into a surname - that's just my theory behind it though.

Oops. She must have meant the full name. I'll go back to her on the Valtteri thing, though. She hasn't lived in Finland for about 45 years, so maybe she's out of touch.

Anyway, really excited to have him on the grid next season. A Kimi WDC victory, with Bottas living up to his alleged potential (beating pastor for pace and consistency), would be unbelieavbly good.